Cut to the scene, where noted New Age/alternative author, Patricia Cori, is trekking through a swathe of giant jungle ferns, trustingly following her shamanic guide up a hidden path to the mosscovered “Lost Temple” deep in the heart of the Mayans’ ancient world of Palenque. There, she takes place in a sacred ceremony with an actual Mayan crystal skull, held by the spiritual Master of Palenque’s sacred temples: Kayun, Keeper of the ‘secret traditions’ of the indigenous people.

Copal, the sacred incense of the Maya, clears the way for communication with the Ancestors … the skull opens a portal to the star people, and magic abounds.

In the next frame, she’s being bestowed with one of the greatest honors imaginable, baptized into the shamanic hierarchy of the Locandun tribe (the last pure descendents of the great Mayan leader, Pacal Votan), in the cool waters of their most holy fountain. It is nestled in one of the jungle’s most dangerous landscapes – that’s right: filled with poisonous snakes and other crawly critters that can kill on sight.

She receives her Mayan name, “Chanuk,” goddess of the moon of Palenque, before she is taken into the “officially closed” Tomb of Pacal.

No, it’s not the latest rendition of a Hollywood fantasy film, although her life does seem to perpetually read like one. This is real life, with a “real life” modern day visionary.

Cori set out for Palenque years ago, with a group of travelers she organized on one of her special “Soul Quest” mystical journeys, with a mission: to bring twelve crystal skulls to Palenque. She sensed that there she would lead her group in a ceremony to honor the Mayan prophecy of the reuniting of ancient crystal skulls, which also speaks to the time of 2012 as the beginning of a new cycle of awakening for the Earth and for humanity.

The Mayan leader hears of her arrival. He appears to her with a human sized quartz crystal skull. He leads the group in the ritual, and later confesses to Cori that it was “written in the dreamland,” all along, that she would come – with the skulls. And she has … right on schedule.

The rest is history. On a return visit, at the behest of the Mayan shaman, she was appointed to take her place as one of the four spirit guardians of Palenque, sitting with three Mayan Elders, all men – the first Western woman to be recognized with such an honor: in fact, possibly the first woman … ever.

Amazingly, these kinds of otherworldly events just seem to happen to her wherever she goes – and that can mean just about anywhere on the planet.

In Peru, she lets herself be dangled from the Condor’s Nest, a precipice high in the Andes mountains, held sacred to the Incas. The only thing holding her from plunging to a violent death is her Incan shaman, Raul, who is performing the initiation. He holds his arms around her waist, calling upon her to leap forward and fly, like the condor, bold against the wind.

When you ask her what would compel her to such death defying leaps of faith, Cori answers: “Only by facing your greatest fears can you truly help others face theirs.”

And face them she does, indeed.

This modern day Indiana Jones is following her heart, not the gold. She was last seen off the coast of Newfoundland, sailing in a treacherous zodiak pontoon boat in the deep Atlantic waters outside of St. John’s Island, trying to establish telepathic contact with the whales and the dolphins that migrate there for feeding in the summer.

She leans dangerously over the edge, sending musical sounds into the icy waves. Like magic, the lightweight rubber boat is suddenly surrounded by dolphins and a great sperm whale passes right below them.

“So what do you think it is they’re saying?” her salty captain asks, with a twinge of curious skepticism.

Readers can follow her no less remarkable Egypt quests in her autobiographical book, Where Pharaohs Dwell: One Mystic’s Journey through the Gates of Immortality (2009) which has this “fearless” adventurer, amongst other dangerous exploits, climbing down a rickety steel ladder in a treacherous twelve story shaft at Giza. It leads straight down, below the Plateau, to an ancient Egyptian chamber, housing a granite sarcophagus, supposed to be the tomb of the god, Osiris. She gets herself locked into the temple of Abydos, in Upper Egypt, alone – in the dark – to encounter priestly spirits, who the locals say “roam free” at night. She climbs through secret tunnels, sneaks into forbidden spaces, and never stops seeking and finding mystery … wherever she goes.

The indigenous tribes agree that the time of Female Energy has returned to help guide the planet back to harmony.

Patricia Cori, our own, real life swashbuckling mystic, is living proof of it.